Family Businesses Learn to Adapt to Keep Thriving

For family-owned businesses, the statistics are daunting. According to the Family Business Institute, only about 30 percent survive beyond the founder’s generation, and just 12 percent make it to a third.

For this small-business guide, we talked to the owners of several businesses that have beaten the odds. From those conversations, we identified a few traits that the survivors seem to share: a willingness to reinvent, a belief that family members are not entitled to employment, a focus on succession and an openness to seeking outside help. Read more...

Burke Brothers Hardware has been beating the odds for more than 75 years!